The invention relates to an apparatus for preparing and dispensing a beverage such as coffee, tea, milk, chocolate milk, soup, milkshakes or the like, which beverage, if desired, may be at least partly foamed, comprising a foaming chamber provided with an inlet opening for supplying beverage prepared upstream, an outlet opening for dispensing the beverage, and foaming means for foaming beverage fed through the foaming chamber.
Such an apparatus is known from practice. With it, as desired, unfoamed, or at least partly foamed beverages can be dispensed. However, a drawback of this known apparatus is that the foaming chamber limits the dispensing flow rate (herein defined as dispensed beverage volume per time unit) as the chamber is designed for foaming and dispensing, per preparation cycle, a measured quantity of beverage, tailored to one mug or cup. This is disadvantageous in particular when using such an apparatus in large-scale consumption environments such as an office, canteen, bar or hotel establishment, where larger quantities of beverage that may or may not be foamed, for instance a (thermos) jug, are required on a regular basis. With the known apparatus, this may lead to considerable waiting times.
The object of the invention is to provide an apparatus of the type described hereinabove, wherein the drawback mentioned of the known apparatus is obviated, while maintaining the advantages thereof. To that end, an apparatus according to the invention is characterized by the features of claim 1.